seeing as he's making his debut tonight vs the pens, i posted in the pens section. he's almost 26 years old and these stats don't really jump out at you. does he really put nashville over the top? thoughts?

Radulov led the KHL in scoring the last two seasons and was a near 60 point guy in the NHL when he left at age 21. I'm willing to bet he would have been around a point per game guy if he had stayed in the NHL instead, so I think they are adding a pretty significant talent. Not like adding a Crosby to the lineup, but few players would be. Does he make Nashville western favorites? I think that's going too far. They have a nice team but I think people are starting to overrate them as a team.

Janne Pesonen had 78 in 56 in the Finnish league, look what that led to.

Then again, Radulov has some track record of NHL success. Pesonen wasn't NHL caliber. Plus Pesonen's KHL stats are very underwhelming while Radulov, like I said, has been a league leader two years running. I may be wrong, but I think the KHL is a higher quality league in terms of on ice performance compared to the Finnish league Pesonen was in.

I think his stats in his previous stint with Nashville was a product of playing under Barry Trotz. He's an old-school, defensive-minded coach, and a really flippin' good one at that, so Radulov didn't exactly get to display his full suite of skills. I actually think it was smart for him to go to Russia and gain experience in all areas of the game; he'll be a much better player for it in the long run, methinks.